La Ciudadela
Located in the bombed out ruins of Rio Bravo, Mexico, La Ciudadela as it was nicknamed during construction is among the few large scale Vault-Tec imitations in Latin America that succeeded in its goal to keep its occupants alive. Since the bombs fell and Rio Bravo was burned off the face of earth in nuclear hellfire, La Ciudadela has remained safe and secure and more recently has become the palace of the self-proclaimed “Reyes of Mexico” who have run the vault and the surrounding shantytown with an iron fist and self-interest in their goal of establishing a new Mexican Empire and more recently, in defeating Pancho Mendoza’s communist People’s Legion who seek to open the vault’s amenities to the poor paisanos who live outside it, or so they claim. History Pre-War La Ciudadela, Spanish for “The Citadel” was the survival idea of the last president of Mexico, Presidente Mateo Cardozo. He wanted a palace-like bastion of survival for himself, his family, his top staff, their families, and sixty bodyguards, a population of around two hundred. This plan was conceived in 2073, the second year of Presidente Cardozo’s term; however the billions of pesos it would take to make the bunker were unavailable to him due to the major budgetary strain Mexico was in. Mexico’s major oil industry was being commandeered by the American government which also placed heavy sanctions on the country, all across Mexico there were drug cartels forming paramilitary armies, terrorizing rural areas, and to make things worse there were thousands of refugees and guerilla fighters pouring across the southern border every day from the Guatemala-Belize War. Keeping their borders secure meant that thousands of troops from Mexico’s small and strained army had to be diverted along with billions of pesos. The budgetary committee denied Presidente Cardozo his bunker funds. However Cardozo refused to be discouraged, he covertly contacted the head of the dreaded Ciudad Juarez drug cartel, the only organized crime syndicate in Mexico who could finance a mega bunker. The Ciudad Juarez cartel agreed; under the condition that all imprisoned cartel members receive a presidential pardon, including infamous drug baron Tuco Mendolado. The pardons released over four hundred criminals back on the streets and Mendolado and accordingly, Presidente Cardozo’s approval numbers dropped from sixty percent to twenty percent, turning him from the most popular president in the past fifty years to the least popular president since Victor Huerta. But that was irrelevant to Cardozo whose vault became reality. Built by a front company, the vault was finished by a front construction company in 2075 and had a monumental area of half a square mile, boasting an Olympic sized swimming pool, a soccer field, and even an underground polo field with a stable and several prize-winning British racehorses that Presidente Cardozo owned. The vault was furnished like a palace and cost nine billion pesos in the end; the president’s bedroom even sported gold faucet handles, and artwork by Michelangelo. Tuco Mendolado ordered no expense be spared for the president who freed him and when it was finished, it was an underground Versailles complete with robotic servants and a massive stockpile of weaponry. The War Presidente Cardozo just barely made it into the vault along with his staff when the bombs fell. Fleeing from Mexico City to Rio Bravo when Mexican intelligence intercepted Brazilian radio chatter about their submarines picking up ICBM signals from China head to the Americas. Cardozo rushed his family, staff, and security into a fleet of helicopters and flew for Rio Bravo. The choppers landed outside of the vault and were destroyed just moments later when the bombs hit, mere minutes after the doors to La Ciudadela were sealed. All went off without a hitch and La Ciudadela survived the war as intended, giving Cardozo a well armed and well supplied people to live in a luxurious underground Versailles. Post-War Sealed Century Rey Valentino Rey Mateo Segundo Rey Cristobol La Guerra de la Ciudadela Government Being a monarchy and feudal society, the government of La Ciudadela is quite simple, the rey has all authority. It is up to Rey Cristobol who lives and who dies. Every paisano outside of the citadel has sworn allegiance to the rey and thus it is to him that they pay taxes. Merchants pay in pesos and farmers pay in food to the rey and his nobles in exchange for protection from raiders and comancheros, failure to pay taxes is punishable by expulsion from the dingy shanty town that surrounds the entrance. The shanty town has basic laws found in most towns with the addition that while paisanos may own firearms, they may not carry them in an open or concealed manner across town, this is to make the police safer after collecting taxes, making arrests, and evicting and expelling paisanos from the shanty town. Since Rey Cristobol obviously cannot settle every dispute inside The Citadel, outside The Citadel and in his small kingdom, he has made a noble hierarchy to control his capital city and kingdom. In Cristobol's court, directly under him are his duquels of which there are three. One is charged with security of his realm, one with handling other settlements in his realm, and one with overseeing The Citadel. Under the duquels are condes, under the condes are baróns and under the baróns are the señors. The duties of these nobles simply breakdown into simpler tasks as they go down the hegemony's chain, for instance the Duquel de la Ciudadela has condes to manage things like law and order, tax collection, and agricultural production, those condes have baróns to manage their divisions and report to them and the baróns have señors to manage the subdivisions of their tasks. Ultimately subordinates report to their superior and so on until problems or reports reach the rey. For criminal punishment, the señors act as judges, there are no prisons in La Ciudadela, although there is a jail for minor offenses in which paisano offenders may be held in for a maximum of three months. If the crime is worthy of more than three months then the only options are a major confiscation of property which most paisanos cannot afford, a set term of slavery, exile from the kingdom, or execution. It is worth noting that this only applies to the paisanos outside of The Citadel, nobles and those of noble families may only be executed for treason against the rey and his reino. For any crime other than treason, nobles are subject to house arrest in their luxurious family living quarters or a fine, if the noble is unable to pay the fine then they are subject to losing their noble title and may become a paisano or leave the reino forever. Economy Being a self-sufficient capital of a small kingdom, La Ciudadela's economy is completely based on trade with passing caravans and other communities in The Kingdom of Mexico. Being a safe and secure town with a relatively hands-off police force, many merchants travel to sell goods to the paisanos in the shanty town and the nobles in the citadel. Luxury goods can be sold for massive sums to the nobles in the ancient bunker and more common goods can be sold to the paisanos. While gunrunners can't make much money off of the paisanos who are a relatively unarmed group, they make fortunes selling chems and alchohol to the poor laborers who have little else in their lives to give them enjoyment or distraction and thus willingly become alcoholics and junkies. All caravans must buy a merchant's license to sell goods in town and once purchased these licenses are valid for life once presented to the officials who guard the main entrances into the shanty town. Selling goods without a license is punishable by confiscation of all goods and currency followed by expulsion from La Ciudadela. The economy of La Ciudadela is not particularly thriving like towns to the north in Texas due to the war with the People's Legion which has caused many caravans to boycott the Reino de Mexico due to fear of being caught in the conflict and political sympathy with the communistic legion. However while the conflict has stopped La Ciuadela from being a massive hub of trade, the economy in the city is strong and has brought wealth to the nobles inside the bunker who have invested heavily in caravan trade, the wealth the nobles possess from the taxes paid by the paisanos has often gone to caravaneers who have taken thousands from the nobility of La Ciudadela. Caravan trade returns sustain the nobility's wealth and caravans financed by this new breed of Mexican nobility have gone as far south as Belize and as far north as Missouri. Culture Relations Layout Geography Category:Places Category:Vaults Category:Communities